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Reliving Steelers' highs, lows so far.....

Though their 16-game path varies from year to year, the Steelers typically land in a familiar spot: playoff-bound with a decent chance to win the Super Bowl.

What more could you ask for?

In 12 seasons since the millennium turned, this franchise has qualified for the playoffs eight times -- including this season -- and has won 12 playoff games, three AFC championships and two Super Bowls.

To put that into perspective, and perhaps lend a little on how the rest of the football world lives, consider that nearly half of the league's teams -- 14 of 32 -- are still scrounging for their first Super Bowl victory.

Once the Steelers complete their regular-season journey today in Cleveland, attention immediately will turn to the playoff opener.

As such, this would be the ideal time to peak into the rearview mirror and appraise a campaign that took root, as always, in sweltering heat amid the rolling hills of Latrobe ...

� MVP: Ben Roethlisberger. Did his teammates really not pick him (again) for this award? Somebody should tell them they'd be 8-8, at best, without their quarterback. Go watch tape of the Kansas City game, when Roethlisberger was under constant siege but still found a way to make the biggest play and win. Roethlisberger rebounded from a rough first quarter of the season, shrugged off injuries and led the team to wins in eight of his past 10 starts. Highlight was beating Tom Brady at his own game.

� Best Play: Franchise-record, 95-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace comes to mind. But in 40 years of watching football, I'd never seen a punt returner race 40 yards to crush a punter, one yard short of a first down. Antonio Brown, come on down!

� Gatorade Award: Ravens coach John Harbaugh, whose players dumped the bucket over him after wins at Heinz Field and against his brother's 49ers. What did Steelers linebacker James Farrior make of it? "Everybody knows there's only one time when you do that."

� Where Did That Come From?: Daniel Sepulveda completes 33-yard pass to Ryan Mundy against Titans, same game in which Jonathan Dwyer rips off 76-yard run (he gained 47 yards on his other 15 carries this season).

� Courage/Crazy Award: James Harrison continues to play against Texans despite broken eye socket; Roethlisberger returns vs. Browns even though he can barely walk.

� Temporary Insanity Award: Tomlin leaves injured Roethlisberger by road side for buzzards to pick in San Francisco. He'd taken out LaMarr Woodley as a "precaution" for being "fatigued." He couldn't take out $102 million quarterback for being badly hurt and beaten up in hopeless cause?

� Sad Goodbyes: Aaron Smith, Sepulveda, Willie Colon and Chris Hoke among those who sustained season-ending injuries. Could be career-enders for Hoke and Smith, two pros who gave hearts and souls to franchise.

� Bounce-back Award: Week after he and Ryan Clark were beaten for late TD against Ravens, William Gay makes game-sealing interception at Cincinnati.

� Roger Goodell Conspiracy Award: Harrison becomes first player in 25 years suspended for a tackle, even though he'd gone full year without violating rules.

� Rip-Goodell-Because-He-Deserves-It Award: I'll take this one by asking a simple question: Do Goodell and money-grubbing owners still want to see an 18-game season and justify it in the name of fan interest? Look around, Roger. Behold the battered bodies. To subject these men to more punishment would not only represent the height of hypocrisy, irresponsibility and greed, it also would be borderline criminal. Give it up.

Quotes of The Year:

� "People that know and compete in this league understand there is a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes. Obviously, last weekend we were grape squashers." -- Tomlin, two days after season-opening loss at Baltimore

� "If I can't play then can't nobody play... Lights out!" -- Tweet from Harrison, after second power outage in San Francisco.

Nice write up!!

If you don’t stand behind our troops.....Please feel free to stand in front of them!!!

"Give me a 6 pack, half hour of rest and lets go play them again....We can beat them."
--Jack Lambert

"They say that when you're the champs, everybody will try to beat you. Well, I'm glad we're the champs, so bring 'em on, bring 'em all on. If we die, we ain't gonna die running. It's gonna be a fight."
--Joe Greene

Biggest disappointment for me was Mike Wallace. I wasn't expecting much from mendy, but I was expecting Mike to take that next step into the elite category of receivers. Hopefully he'll step up big in this playoffs.

I know Matthew Stafford has the comeback player of the year award in most people's eyes but I would say Max Starks would deserve some big consideration for this too. After the way he showed up to camp, was cut, and then came back to be the savior of what is left of the Steelers offensive line.

� Biggest Surprise: Max Starks, having practiced three times in 338 days, returns to play superbly vs. Titans.